Scholarly Work - Indigenous Research Initiative
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/15852
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Item Human capital accumulation among Native Americans : an empirical analysis of the national assessment of educational progress(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2009) Fischer, Stefanie Jane; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Christiana Stoddard.Native Americans have low levels of human capital accumulation. In 2005, only 21% scored at the proficient level on the NAEP math test compared with 37% of all other test takers. One cause of their low human capital accumulation may be factors that commonly explain low academic performance among other minority groups within the United States, such as school quality and family background. Alternatively, Native American students may perform low academically due to factors that are unique to this population such as living on Native land or the political institutions that govern them. This paper will empirically examine Native American students' human capital accumulation decisions. Using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), I find Native American students residing on Native land score 1/4 of a standard deviation lower on the math assessment than Native American students living off Native land, with no other controls added. After controlling for other area characteristics, family background, peer effects and school resources, the effect of living on Native land is not statistically significant in explaining test scores. Family background and peer effects explain most of the variation in Native American students' human capital accumulation decision. Students who identify with the white peer group score 1/5 of a standard deviation higher than students who identify with the Native American peer group. Although legal institutions do not explain student test scores, they do appear to affect students' attendance. Students living in areas under tribal jurisdiction are 13% more likely to miss a week or more of school in a month, ceteris paribus.Item Composition and aleche : Native American education, scholarship and the pedagogy of John Dewey(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2005) Jenkins, Nathan Joseph; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Kirk BranchThis thesis approaches the historical and contemporary education of Native Americans in order to analyze and combat the American academic system's failure to educate Native students. The chapters cover 1) boarding schools aims and student resistance, 2) problems still faced by Native American students, and 3) possible solutions to these problems. Chapters 1 and 2 give an overview of history and research done by educators and scholars. Chapter 3 is a combination of suggestions by educators of Native students and John Dewey. The first sections demonstrate problems and voids in academia, and the final section attempts to show practical and realistic methods for correcting institutional mistakes and/or ignorance which result in high attrition rates. Dewey's pedagogy succinctly breaks down and challenges academic ideology, while at the same time challenging educators with progressive methods. The thesis challenges not only the error of conventional education, but also how education gets defined and placed upon Native students. Also recognized in this thesis, are those areas where an academic self-examination demonstrates difficult, or problematic, areas and situations, where the black and white, or binaries, of education, are not easily noticed, nor navigated by the student or the teacher. In general, the aim of the discussion is to further democratic methods in Native American education by literally bringing those students into consideration, and to look at what we do in academia in light of the past, present, and future, within an unbroken link of time and pedagogy.